


jigsaw

by SaekoCrolla (Crollalanza)



Series: Sports Fest 2018 Haikyuu!! [7]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Beginnings, Loss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 07:37:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15138314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crollalanza/pseuds/SaekoCrolla
Summary: TIME: Post-Karasuno match.PLACE: On the team bus, while everyone else is asleep.





	jigsaw

**Author's Note:**

> Osamu doesn't really snore.

The worst thing was the silence.

Other years, there was always noise, but now all he could hear was the trundle of the coach, the driver and the soft _tchin tchin_ of the driver’s radio.

Shinsuke gazed out of the window. He wanted to sleep, and wondered momentarily if the deities watching would grant him his wish if he asked, but at the same time it was such a small thing and really he should be able to close his eyes and give in without calling on a higher power.

And what if he prayed and sleep still didn’t come? What then? Would he be left with the knowledge that no one was there, that no one could listen, or perhaps it was that they wouldn’t listen, that Kita Shinsuke wasn’t even the sum of the small things, but a mass of pieces … un-reconstructered … scattered beyond instant repair?

Across the aisle, Aran slept, his eye mask obliterating the lights flashing past them. In front, Ren had stretched out, earphones on to block any noise, while Michinari in the seat behind, kept nodding in and out of consciousness, his chin dropping to his chest before he jerked back to semi-wakefulness and began the cycle again.

Throat beginning to dry, Shinsuke fumbled for his bag, which had become wedged under his seat, and in reaching out, he became aware of another person still awake, the light glinting off his hair catching Shinsuke’s eye.

Perhaps the fact he’d moved had shaken Atsumu out of his contemplation, for he let out a heavy sigh, and weakly flapped his hand at Shinsuke. Half his face was in shadow, but as a car passed them, the light flashed on his cheeks and the tell tale signs of tear trails caused something to rip in the region of Shinsuke’s chest.

Atsumu had been quiet since they’d clomped on the coach. In the changing room, after, he had vowed to bring Inarizaki victory next year, win both tournaments, to tear down Karasuno and Kageyama-kun with his own bare hands, if that’s what it took.

And his rallying cry of rage had prompted more tears from his teammates but had served as a storm to clear the oppressiveness of the day.

But now … it was as if he were spent, the fury had whirled itself to dust leaving a husk of a boy—a deadened breeze— and not the tornado.

Their eyes met. Afterwards, Shinsuke supposed he must have made a gesture with his head or hand, but at the time he couldn’t discern why Atsumu got to his feet and trudged towards him.

“Hey,” he muttered. “C’n I sit with you for a bit, Kita-san. Only ‘Samu’s sleepin’ and he … uh … snores like—” He shrugged, not able to finish the comparison. “I can’t sleep.”

“Nor can I,” Shinsuke replied, and shuffled along the seat, inviting Atsumu to join him.

Atsumu sat heavily, sighing again. “I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t stop running over that last point.”

“We don’t need memories,” Shinsuke intoned, then gave a smile when Atsumu winced. “I’m not a fan of that mantra.”

“Huh?”

“Memories make us, Atsumu-kun. You shouldn’t dwell on them, but refusing to acknowledge the past doesn’t help either.”

“Strongest Challengers.” He laughed, but it stuck in his throat.

And there was something there, something about the sudden vulnerability of the boy, whose eyes and soul ached with the loss, that reached inside of Shinsuke and wrung out his heart. “You will be again, Atsumu,” he whispered and stretched out to Atsumu’s hand, squeezing tight until the tremors ceased. “And I’ll be watching from the sidelines … always.”

And as Atsumu squeezed back, the jigsaw pieces that made up the whole of Kita Shinsuke reassembled.


End file.
